What Baptism Portrays

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but
where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 that, as sin
reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness
to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:1 What shall we
say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? 2
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we
have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so we too might walk in newness of life.

Today is the last message in this short series on baptism. I
know there is so much more to say. I'm sorry if I have left
unanswered some of your questions. But we will have more
opportunities in various settings to discuss these things.

Recall that one of our main motives for putting this series here
at the beginning of the summer is that we believe the New Testament
calls for people to come to Christ openly and courageously. We want
to see people who have been believers come to that point of public
testimony and we want to see people become believers through your
witness and through the ministry of the word here all summer
long.

Why Did Jesus Ordain the Act of Baptism?

Sometimes we might wonder why Jesus ordained the act of baptism.
Why is there such a thing as baptism? If salvation is by grace
through faith, why institute a required ritual or a symbol to act
out that faith? That is a question the Bible does not answer. But
experience teaches some interesting things.

For example, after my first message three weeks ago a former
missionary to the Philippines came up to me and expressed her
appreciation for the series and then said why. She said that in the
Philippines, where there is a good bit of nominal and syncretistic
Catholicism, converts were tolerated and scarcely noticed by their
family - until they came to be baptized. Then the Biblical
predictions of hostility and separation came to pass. There is
something about this open ritual of new-found faith that makes
clear where a person stands and what he is doing. In other words,
in many cultures today the situation is a lot like the situation
with John the Baptist. He came preaching a baptism of repentance
and those who thought they already had all they needed were often
enraged.

That same week this missions magazine (The Dawn Report, May 30)
came. On page 7 there is a picture of a man baptizing in a
missionary setting in a river, with this caption under the picture:
"Outdoor services and river baptisms are sometimes the best
vehicles for growth." We simply do not know the whole constellation
of reasons God had in his wisdom for prescribing baptism as a
normative way of expressing faith in Christ and identification with
him and his people. We can think of several reasons why it is a
good thing, but we probably cannot come near to thinking of all the
good effects that God intends. In the end it is an act of trust in
our Father that he knows what he is doing and we are happy to act
on his command.

Immersion or Sprinkling?

But today I will try to show from Romans 5:20-6:4 a little more
of the meaning of the act. This will also address the question that
some of you have regarding the mode of baptism - that is, immersion
rather than sprinkling. In fact, let me begin with a general word
about the mode of immersion as opposed to sprinkling. There are at
least three kinds of evidence for believing that the New Testament
meaning and practice of baptism was by immersion. 1) The meaning of
the word baptizo in Greek is essentially "dip" or "immerse," not
sprinkle. 2) The descriptions of baptisms in the New Testament
suggest that people went down into the water to be immersed rather
than having water brought to them in a container to be poured or
sprinkled (Matthew 3:6, "in the Jordan;" 3:16, "he went up out of
the water;" John 3:23, "much water there;" Acts 8:38, "went down
into the water"). 3) Immersion fits the symbolism of being buried
with Christ (Romans 6:1-4; Colossians 2:12).

We won't linger over this, but let me say a word about how we
may look at the fact that our church and our denomination make
baptism by immersion a defining part of membership in the local
covenant community (but not in the universal body of Christ). We do
not believe that the mode of baptism is an essential act for
salvation. So we do not call into question a person's Christian
standing merely on the basis of the mode of their baptism. One
might then ask: should you not then admit to membership those who
are truly born again but who were sprinkled as believers? There are
two ways to account for why we do not.

1) Should we call a manmade method of baptism "baptism," if we
believe on good evidence that it departs from the form that Christ
inaugurated? Would this not run the risk of minimizing the
significance that Christ himself invested in the ordinance?

2) Local Christian communities, called churches, are built
around shared Biblical convictions, some of which are essential for
salvation and some of which are not. We do not define our covenant
life together only by the narrowest possible set of beliefs one
must have to be saved. We believe rather that the importance of
truth and the authority of Scripture are better honored when
communities of Christian faith define themselves by clusters of
Biblical convictions and stand by them, rather than redefining the
meaning of membership each time one of their convictions is
disputed. When different Christian communities can do this while
expressing love and brotherly affection for other believers, both
truth and love are well-served. For example, the fact that many of
the speakers we invite to the Bethlehem Conference for Pastors
could not be members of this church says that we take love and
unity seriously and we take truth seriously.

Which non-essentials will be included from generation to
generation in defining various communities depends largely on
varying circumstances and varying assessments of what truths need
to be emphasized.

What Baptism Portrays

With that background let's look at Romans 5:20-6:4 to see what
baptism portrays, and only secondarily what implications this has
for the mode of baptism. My aim here is to help you see the
glorious reality that baptism points to so that, mainly, the
reality itself will grip you, and that, secondarily, the beauty and
significance of the act will rise in your mind and hearts. Romans
5:20-6:4:

And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but
where sin increased, grace abounded all the more, 21 that, as sin
reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness
to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.
6:1 What shall we
say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase? 2
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into
Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we
have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that
as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father,
so we too might walk in newness of life.

One of the great things about this text is that it shows that,
if you understand what baptism portrays, you understand what really
happened to you when you became a Christian. Many of us came to
faith and were baptized at a point when we did not know very much.
This is good. It is expected that baptism happens early in the
Christian walk when you do not know very much. So it is also
expected that you will learn later more and more of what it
means.

Don't think, "Oh, I must go back and get baptized again. I
didn't know it had all this meaning." No. No. That would mean you
would be getting re-baptized with every new course you take in
Biblical theology. Rather, rejoice that you expressed your simple
faith in obedience to Jesus and now are learning more and more of
what it all meant. That is what Paul is doing here: he is hoping
that his readers know what their baptism meant, but he goes ahead
and teaches them anyway, in case they don't or have forgotten.
Learn from these verses what you once portrayed in the eyes of God,
and what actually happened to you in becoming a Christian.

I am going to deal with only two things that baptism portrays,
according to these verses.

1. Baptism portrays our death in the death of Christ. Verses
3-4a: "Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized
into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? Therefore we
have been buried with Him through baptism into death," Here is a
great truth about us Christians. We have died. When Christ died he
died our death. This means at least two things. 1) One is that we
are not the same people we once were; our old self has died. We are
not the same. 2) Another is that our future physical death will not
have the same meaning for us that it would have had if Christ had
not died our death. Since we have died with Christ, and he died our
death for us, our death will not be the horrible thing it would
have been. "O death where is your victory? O death, where is your
sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:55). The answer is that the sting and the
victory of death have been swallowed up by Christ. Remember from
last week: he drank the tank.

Notice the repetition of the word
"into" in verses 3 and 4. Baptized "into Christ Jesus," and
baptized "into his death" (verse 3), and baptism "into death"
(verse 4a). What this says is that baptism portrays our union with
Christ, that is, we are united to him spiritually so that his death
becomes our death and his life will become our life. How do we
experience this? How do you know if this has happened to you? The
answer is that it is experienced by faith. You can hear this in the
parallel verses. Galatians 2:20 makes the connection with faith: "I
have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live but
Christ lives in me, and the life I now live in the flesh, I live by
faith in the Son of God. . ." In other words,
the "I" who died was
the old unbelieving, rebellious "I" and the "I" who came to life
was the "I" of faith - "The life I now live I live by faith in the
Son of God." And the basis of all this is union with Christ -
"Christ lives in me." And I live in him - in spiritual union with
him. His death is my death and his life is being lived out in my
life.

Another illustration of this would be Colossians 2:6-7a: "As you
therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him,
having been firmly rooted and now being built up in Him and
established in your faith." Here again you can see that faith in
Christ is the way you experience union with Christ. You receive him
as Lord and Savior and in that faith you are united to him and walk
"in him" and are built up "in him."

So when Romans 6:3-4a says that we are baptized into Christ and
into his death, I take it to mean that baptism expresses the faith
in which we experience union with Christ. This is presumably why
God designed the mode of baptism to portray a burial. It represents
the death that we experience when we are united to Christ. This is
why we are immersed: it's a symbolic burial.

So know, believer, that you have died. The old unbelieving,
rebellious "I" has been crucified with Christ. This is what your
baptism meant and means.

2. Baptism portrays our newness of life in Christ.

Verse 4: "We have been buried with Him through baptism into
death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the
glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life."
Nobody stays under the water of baptism. We come up out of the
water. After death comes new life. The old "I" of unbelief and
rebellion died when I was united to Christ through faith. But the
instant the old "I" died a new "I" was given life - a new spiritual
person was, as it were, raised from the dead.

The most crucial commentary on this truth is Colossians 2:12.
Paul says, "Having been buried with Him in baptism, in which you
were also raised up with Him through faith in the working of God,
who raised Him from the dead." Notice: We are raised up with Christ
just like Romans 6:4 says we walk in newness of life. And there is
the working of God who raised him from the dead just like Romans
6:4 says that Christ was raised through the glory of the Father.
And this happens through faith in the working of God who raised
Jesus from the dead.

So Colossians 2:12 makes explicit what Romans 6:4 leaves
implicit - that baptism expresses our faith in the working of God
to raise Jesus from the dead. We believe that Christ is alive from
the grave and reigning today at the Father's right hand in heaven
from which he will come again in power and glory. And that faith in
God's working - God's glory as Paul calls it - is how we share in
the newness of life that Christ has in himself.

In fact, the newness of life is the life of faith in the glory
and the working of God. "I am crucified with Christ; it is no
longer I who live . . but the life I live in the flesh I live by
faith in the Son of God." The newness of life is the life of day by
day trusting in the working of God - the glory of God.

Baptism Portrays What Happened to us When We Became Christians

So let's summarize and come to a conclusion. Baptism portrays what
happened to us when we became Christians. This is what happened to
us: we were united to Christ. His death became our death. We died
with him. And in the same instant, his life became our life. We are
now living out the life of Christ in us. And all this is
experienced through faith.

This is what it means to be a Christian - to live in the reality
of what our baptism portrays: day by day we look away from
ourselves to God and say, "Because of Christ, your Son, I come to
you. In him I belong to you. I am at home with you. He is my only
hope of acceptance with you. I receive that acceptance anew every
day. My hope is based on his death for me and my death in him. My
life in him is a life of faith in you, Father. Because of him I
trust your working in me and for me. The same power and glory that
you used to raise him from the dead you will use to help me. In
that promise of future grace I believe, and in that I hope. That is
what makes my life new. O Christ, how I glory in what my baptism
portrays! Thank you for dying my death for me and giving new life
to me. Amen."

John Piper (@JohnPiper) is founder and teacher of desiringGod.org and chancellor of Bethlehem College & Seminary. For 33 years, he served as pastor of Bethlehem Baptist Church, Minneapolis, Minnesota. He is author of more than 50 books.

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